Automatic lighting system circuit closing apparatus



Oct. 11, 1960 c. YAKEM 2,956,208

AUTOMATIC LIGHTING SYSTEM CIRCUIT CLOSING APPARATUS Filed March 27, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I N V EN TOR. wars-n4,

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Oct. 11, 1960 c. YAKEM AUTOMATIC LIGHTING SYSTEM CIRCUIT CLOSING APPARATUS Filed March 27, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 C'HAEL ES INVENZTOR. YA KE/W,

. Oct. 11, 1960 c. YAKEM 2,956,208

AUTOMATIC LIGHTING SYSTEM CIRCUIT CLOSING APPARATUS Filed March 27, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 JNVE'fbiTOR.

United States Patent AUTOMATIC LIGHTING SYSTEM CIRCUIT CLOSING APPARATUS Charles Yakem, 610-S0les Sh, McKeesport, Pa.

Filed Mar. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 802,480

1 Claim. (Cl. 315-316) proved multiple-branched lighting circuit involving a plurality of different lamps, the, circuit being provided with means for periodically and sequentially energizing the different lamps, whereby said lamps may be of different colors and whereby successive energization of the different-colored lamps provides a spectacular and highly unusual effect, and whereby the lighting system is especially useful for displays.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved means for periodically and sequentially energizing a plurality of different electrical circuits, for example, a plurality of electrical lamp circuits, said means being relatively inexpensive to fabricate, being durable in construction, and involving relatively few parts.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and claim, and from the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a top view of an automatic control switch device constructed in accordance with the present invention and adapted to be employed in a lighting system according to this invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical cross sectional view taken substantially on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a horizontal cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical cross sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a horizontal cross sectional view taken substantially on the line 5-5 of Figure 2.

Figure 6 is a schematic wiring diagram of an improved lighting system according to the present invention, employing the automatic switching device illustrated in Figures 1 to 5.

Referring to the drawings, and more particularly to Figure 6, 11 generally designates a multiple-branched lighting circuit according to the present invention, for example, a lighting circuit designed to be employed in connection with a display, for example, in a showroom, store window, or in a similar location. Alternatively, the lighting system may be employed in conjunction with Christmas tree lights or similar ornamental arrangements.

The circuit 11 comprises five different parallel-connected branches, the branches including the respective electric lamps 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. As shown in Figure 6, each branch may include any desired number of parallel-connected lamps, for example, the circuit may provide three similar lamps in each branch, as is illusice trated in Figure 6. The lamps 12 to 16 may be of respective different colors.

As will be readily understood, the respective groups of lamps may be arranged in any desirable configuration, in accordance with the nature of the display with which the lamps are associated.

Each lamp in the circuit has one terminal thereof connected to a common line wire 18. The remaining terminals of the lamps 12 are connected to a wire 19, the remaining terminals of the lamps 13 are connected to a wire 20, the remaining terminals of the lamps 14 are connected to a wire 21, the remaining terminals of the lamps 15 are connected to a wire 22, and the remaining terminals of the lamps 16 are connected to a wire 23. The wires 19 to 23 aresequentially connected to the remaining line wire 24 by a switching device 25, presently to be described in detail. The line wire 24 is provided with a master switch 26, as shown in Figure 6.

The sequential switching device 25 comprises a housing 27 provided with the removable cover 28. Mounted in the housing 27 is an insulating plate member 29, and secured on said plate member are the circularly arranged, evenly spaced terminals 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 which are formed integrally with the respective circular contact disc members 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 exposed at the bottom surfaces of the plate member 29, as viewed in Figure 2, and being substantially flush therewith.

The circular contact elements 35 to- 39 are of substantial diameter and are spaced apart slightly at their peripheral edges, as shown in Figure 1, being located so as to be successively engaged by a rotary vertical contact pin member 40 in a manner presently to be described.

Designated at 41 is a shaft member which is journaled in insulating plate 29 and in the bottom wall 42 of the housing 27, as viewed in Figure 2, on an axis which is centrally located with respect to the circle defined by the terminals 30 to 34. Secured on the shaft 41 is a fullytoothed gear 43, said gear being formed adjacent its periphery with a transverse bore 44 in which the contact pin 40 is slidably engaged. A leaf spring 46 is secured on the shaft 41 and engages beneath the bottom end of the pin 40, biasing the pin upwardly, as viewed in- Figure 1, namely, into contacting engagement with the bottom surface of plate 29 and with the circularly arranged contact elements 35 to 39. As shown in Figure 2, the shaft member 41 has a threaded lower portion engaged through the gear 43 and leaf spring 46 and is provided with clamping nuts 47, 47 which clampingly secure the leaf spring 4-6 and the gear 43 to the shaft when the nuts are tightened.

Mounted in the insulating top plate 29 is an additional terminal 50 which comprises a bolt member extending through one end portion of a leaf spring 51. The leaf spring 51conductively and rotatably engages on the top end of the shaft member 41, making electrical contact therewith, and thus being electrically connected through shaft 41 and leaf spring 46 to the contact pin 40. The line wire 24 is connected to the terminal 50.

Designated at 52 is an electric motor which is secured to the bottom wall 42 and which is provided with a squared shaft element 53 lockingly engageable in a square recess in the end of a shaft element 54 journaled at its top end in the insulating plate 29 and being rotatable at its lower end portion in a bearing sleeve integrally formed in the bottom wall 42. Secured on the shaft element 54 is a disc member which is disposed substantially in the same plane as the gear 43 and which is formed with a relatively small number of gear teeth 66 having the same pitch as the gear teeth 67 of gear 43 and being meshingly engageable therewith for a relatively short period during each rotation of the motor shaft 53. Thus, as shown in Figure 5, three gear teeth 66 are provided,

said gear teeth 66 being adapted to meshingly engage with the gear teeth'67 during the period that the teeth 66 are rotated past the periphery of gear 43, and thus rotating the gear 43, and the shaft 41 connected thereto, through a relatively small angle at each complete rotation of the disc member 65.

Motor 52 is connected across the line wires 18 and 24 by respective terminal wires 69 and 70. Thus, the switch 26 serves as a common control means for the motor 52 and for the respective lamp circuits associated with the switch terminal wires 19 to 23.

As above mentioned, the gear teeth 66 are constructed and arranged to mesh with the teeth 67 of gear 43 during a relatively short portion of each revolution of motor shaft 53, said portion being sufficient to rotate the gear 43 through at least a fractional part of the angle necessary to move the rotary contact element 40 from one of the circularly arranged contact elements 35 to 39 to the next successive stationary contact element, whereby the contact pin 40 is intermittently rotated into successive engagement with the stationary contact elements 35 to 39 responsive to continuous rotation of the disc member 65, and whereby the terminal wires 19 to 23, leading to the respective lamp circuits, are successively connected to the line wire 24, and whereby the respective groups of lamps 12 to 16 are successively energized. Thus, in a typical embodiment of the invention, motor 52 was designed to rotate shaft 53 at the rate of one and one-half revolutions per minute and three gear teeth 66 were provided on the disc 65. The gear 43 was provided with twenty-five gear teeth. The contact disc elements 35 to 39 were spaced apart by angular spacings corresponding to five gear teeth on the gear 43, the spacing between the closest adjacent peripheral portions of the contact discs 35 to 39 being less than the angular spacing between two gear teeth 67 on the gear 43. Thus, since the three teeth 66 rotate the gear 43 through an angle corresponding to two and one-half times the spacing between the gear teeth 67 for each revolution of disc 65, the gear 43 was rotated through an angular distance corresponding to the spacing between two adjacent contact disc elements 35 to 39 responsive to two complete revolutions of the disc member 65. This caused the contact pin 40 to move from one contact disc element to a position engaging the next successive contact disc element responsive to the two complete revolutions of disc member 65. Therefore, each of the individual branch circuits was energized for a period corresponding to the time required for two revolutions of disc member 65, namely, one minute and twenty seconds, and each branch circuit was periodically energized at intervals corresponding to the time required for disc member 65 to complete ten revolutions, namely, approximately six minutes and forty seconds.

Obviously any other desirable timing arrangement may be provided either by the selection of the motor 52 as to speed, or by the proper design of the cooperating gear 43 and gear teeth 66.

Therefore it will be apparent that the respective switch terminal wires 19 to 23 are successively energized and in regular sequence, so that the respective lamp groups 12 to 16 are correspondingly periodically energized in succession.

It will be seen that the contact pin 40 is continuously biased into engagement with the bottom surface of the plate member 29 and the contacts 35 to 39 circularly arranged thereon by the biasing spring 46 which acts against the bottom end of the pin 40.

While a specific embodiment of an improved lighting system provided with intermittently energized branch circuits has been disclosed in the foregoing description, it will be understood that various modifications within the spirit of the invention may occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore it is intended that no limitations be placed on the invention except as defined by the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In a periodic switch device of the character described adapted to successively energize circuits for periods which are relatively long as compared to the switching time between energizations, a resilient rotary contact arm, a group of circularly arranged stationary contacts of substantial angular length and relatively small angular separation located on a circle coaxial with the rotary axis of said contact arm and in a plane spaced from said contact arm, a fully toothed gear mounted coaxially with and secured to said rotary contact arm, a contact pin slidably engaged in the peripheral portion of said gear, said pin extending parallel to said rotary axis and being engaged by said contact arm, said pin being located at the same radial distance from said axis as said stationary contacts and being urged into engagement with said stationary contacts by said resilient rotary contact arm, a constant speed electric motor mounted adjacent said gear and provided with a shaft, a disc member mounted on said shaft coplanar with said gear, and a relatively small number of gear teeth on the periphery of said disc member having the same pitch as the gear and being meshingly engageable with said gear during a relatively short portion only of each revolution of the motor shaft, said portion being sufiicient to rotate the gear through a fractional part of the angle necessary to move the contact pin from one of said circularly arranged stationary contacts to the next successive stationary contacts, the gear being rotated only during said relatively short portion of the rotation of the disc member and remaining stationary during the remaining portion of the rotation of said disc member, whereby said contact pin is intermittently rotated into successive engagement with said stationary contacts responsive to continuous rotation of said disc member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,238,948 Sheppard Sept. 4, 1917 1,483,710 Black Feb. 12, 1924 2,082,629 Helmbright June 1, 1937 

